Visual Studio 2008 won't properly load settings

I have the weirdest bug with VS2008

At first, at each load of a project, it created a "Visual Studio 2008" folder inside the project's folder. I solved it following this question : Visual Studio 2008\Backup Files folder created when every new VS instance is opened

I modified the VisualStudioLocation key with "\ourDomainServer\users\thomas\my documents\visual studio 2008"

Now, when I launch a project (by double-clicking on the .sln file), it works. But when I launch it without a .sln file, it shows the splash screen, then hangs. And more : sometimes it loads, sometimes not... I can't find a way to reproduce the problem accurately.

In any case, when VS loads, my settings are not loaded. Well, actually, half of my settings are loaded : the color of the text is white (as it should be), but the background is also white (even if it should be black). Very hard to work with white text on a white background.

When I go to options > import/export settings, the path is : "\ourDomainServer\users\thomas\my documents\visualstudion2008Settings\CurrentSettings.vssettings". Note the absence of "\" between "2008" and "Settings".

If I tried to modify the settings path, by simply adding a "\" between the "2008" and "settings", when I click on "save", VS hangs.

If I add a trailing "\" in the registry key, it messes up the settings path, like "\ourDomainServer\users\thomas\my documents\\ourDomainServer\开发者_C百科users\thomas\my documents\visual studio...".

Any idea as of the "why" of this really weird behavior, and more importantly, the "how to resolve it" ?

Should I just try to simply reinstall it ?

Thanks

Well, I had to uninstall VS, remove all registry info, and reinstall it, and it works again.

In the future, I will remember to export my settings regularly.